“I Facebooked Your Mom” Social Networks & Identity Creation on the Web

Flowtv.org is a “critical forum on television and media culture.” I found a wide range of interesting articles and subjects covered in short, thoughtful pieces. One article that caught my attention was “I Lost my Wife to Facebook, and Other Myths that Might be True.”

http://flowtv.org/?p=392

In this article, Michelle Byers confronts her own feelings about being over 35 and new to facebook. She gives a brief history of Mark Zuckerberg, founder and young Harvard dropout and goes on to creating a facebook page. “You can provide an almost unlimited amount of personal information…you can engage in an ongoing commentary about your life…-and I can’t believe how words like Facebooker and Facebooking flow out of me after just a few short weeks of interface.”

Yes folks, “facebooking” is a verb. The ability to create a persona with words and images is almost limitless. Social networking sites are fast becoming the most popular and most-used sites on the internet. These sites are more generally used by youth and are more youth-focused in their advertising, but Byers notes that increasing numbers of 30 and ups are logging on for possibly more nostalgic reasons like finding old friends from the past.

Byers also notes a phenomenon that may be even more interesting than nostalgia – narrative, particularly because narrative or creating a narrative applies to everyone that designs a facebook page. Referring to a book called, “Giving an Account of Oneself” by Judith Bulter, Byers explores the idea that we use facebook to find new ways to essentially “tell our story.” The problem is that there is always a part of us (originary) that we don’t know. Butler call this, “A piece that is beyond language and memory but that is nonetheless foundational to who we are.” This is where the versatile and exponential options of Facebook come in. Maybe we’re subconsciously using facebook as another way to describe the indescribable about ourselves. Maybe all the pictures of our Hawaiian vacation, the movie quotes or the “top friends” on our page can never truly describe us. Somehow I doubt this will keep us from trying…

LESSON PLAN:

I think using social networks as a tool to teach about relationships and identity creation has the potential to be very engaging. In the large group I would start with some basic questions about social networks-

Part 1

1. Who has created an online profile on a social network? If so which one(s)

2. Is there a difference between sites? What are the pros/cons of each site?

3. If you use social networks what do you enjoy about them? What would you change?

4. If you don’t have a profile what reasons have kept you from joining?

Part 2

Have students (on paper) create a facebook profile from scratch so that even students that don’t have online profiles can participate. Use typical facebook categories like activities, interests, favorites, etc. Then have students get into smaller groups and share their mock facebook pages. After students have shared, gather in the large group for a more in-depth discussion about how social networks intersect with identity creation.

1. What are the most important things to you on your page?

2. What do those things/people mean to you?

3. What influences your decisions about what you put on your page?

4. Do you feel like your page truly represents you?

5. Can a facebook page show who you are? Why or why not?